Conference oass::racers

 I've raced there once. Have you been there before?
Its quite different to all the other club circuits.
 The bits I couldnt get right were Charlies and the Gooseneck.

As regards getting a vast lump off your time. Try following somebody
who knows what they are doing i.e. they are are doing the time you want 
do. I did this last time and got 6.5 seconds off my time in practice
(Snetterton) and lost a further 3 seconds in the race. I believe I've
got another 3 seconds to take off this time. 

    	I've noticed that various people have various rates at which they
    approach their ultimate.  I've particularly noticed corner workers when
    they become drivers. Their first green flag laps are usually within 10
    sec/lap  (for lap times in the 1:10 to 1:40 range) of their ultimate, 
    and by the end of the first weekend (say 2 hr track time) they are
    within 5 sec of their ultimate. This is quite a bit quicker than the
    norm, but does show one benift of corner working.  - Chris

    
    A mid-engined single seater will always appear to loose grip more
    suddenly than a front-engined saloon, it just takes longer to start 
    to loose it.
    
    Mark

My two days at Cadwell, were really good fun. From starting 
out as the slowest of all of the 18 pupils on the morning of the first day, I 
ended up over a second and a half quicker than anyone else and more than 5 
seconds faster than the average. At the end of the first day I was about 3rd 
fastest, but nearly 5 secs slower than the chap who was fastest, I think this 
was mainly due to me not having done anything for the last 15 months, with 
one exception everyone else there had either taken an advanced course just 
recently or were already racing.


The two days the course consisted of:-

	Assessment drive
	46 Timed Laps in a Formula First 3 x 10 & 2 X 8 lap sessions.
	A PI (Personal Instruction) session before each set of timed laps.
	10 Demonstration Laps in a Multisports car (Van Diemon sports racer) 
	10 Laps in a Formula Forward (Budget slicks & wings formula).
	Oversteer test.

In all around 100 Laps for 600 Pounds.


As for the driving you can see from the Lap times below, that I took fairly 
large chunks off of my times on each set of timed laps. 
    
    
All timed Laps 1 minute + seconds below. 
 
   42.18    29.2   23.56   23.77   25.47
   44.96   28.57   31.73   20.78   24.88
    42.3   26.16   20.76   21.79   22.32
   41.39   26.82   20.86   18.66   16.81
   49.28   27.89   24.25   19.47   14.09
   35.85    30.1   21.28    19.6   16.92 } Bulked
   37.89   29.35   22.74   17.13  *13.99*  Best Time
   42.65                   29.66   14.99 } Started to run out of fuel S**T
                           17.05   16.27 }


I think the key to my improvement was the oversteer test. This was held prior 
to the last session of laping. On one corner (Park) there is a large runoff 
area, if its going to happen  this is the 'best'? place to spin. The test 
consisted of taking a run at the corner from halfway down the main straight 
and from flat in third gear leave your braking to a cone placed at about 
20 meters from the turn in point. This really takes some doing first time my 
nerve went and I lifted at about 50 and was on the brakes a good 10-20 from 
the cone, still convinced I was going to spin, the car just took the turn and 
I exited to a deal of jeering from the onlooking instructors, next time round 
I held the throttle to the cone and through the car in at the corner as hard 
as I could, the result was pretty predictable, but there was a brief moment 
when I thought I could hold onto it before it got away from me, and I exited 
the corner backwards, still I did manage to keep the engine running. This 
really is the quickest way to find the limit that I've experienced and of the 
remaining three runs that I had I found that I could hold the car in a nice 
power slide controlling it on the throttle and with minor steering adjustments, 
in a total of a probably less than 20 seconds of action I had raised my 
confidence in control of just over the limit situations by at least ten fold.

I certainly answered the questions that I had from .0 To give you some 
idea of how fast the 1' 13.99 lap was compared to the 
outright capability of the cars, the instructors reckoned that you could get 
down to the 1 ' 15's by good and precise fast driving. Below this you have to 
start pushing things, they set a final target of 1' 12 as they reckon the cars 
are around a couple of seconds of the pace due to the way there set up and 
that none of the engines are very quick, there was a race for the firsts the 
weekend before I was there, the fastest lap during the race was a 1' 8.9.

It was only in the last set of ten laps (after the oversteer test) that I 
felt confident of knowing how the car responded at and just beyond the limit. 
And with all the laps in the session I never got a single lap where I felt 
that in any one given lap I had taken more than about 50% of the bends as 
well as I could. So I'm sure that I could find at least another second per lap. 
After this I would have to start to stretching myself to find another whole 
second but if the instructors assessment of the cars is correct that would 
put me right up toward the front of the grid (or am I just dreaming 8*).

All I need now is M$ and I'd be able to find out.. oh well one day (Soon?)


    

But It will have to wait till next year when I have some more holiday. And
could be a bit difficult to persuade my sponsor/pit crew/transport driver 
that this is better than a skiing holiday!

 It was good. I managed a 1'15" but my excuse was the temp was below
freezing. Not too good for grip.

Derek,


Good to see you got there, any update on the course content and cost? I know 
that the Other BHL circuits have put there prices up quite a lot just 
recently. I think that its around 25%+. 

How did it compare to running your own car at an open test day?

Unfortunately I'm just not in a position to be able to afford buy a car 
for quite a while yet... oh well one-day. I know its a bit daft but I think if 
they were to run a similar course at another circuit I would be quite 
interested in having another go.

If you were to start out from the beginning again which other formulas would 
you consider?

What would you say the advantages/disadvatges of buying a car as an 
unfinnished project v's a going concern.


Regards,


Roy.    

>>How did it compare to running your own car at an open test day?

A lot better , I found someone in the same car shouting faster, smoother
a real help

>If you were to start out from the beginning again which other formulas would 
>you consider?

	Definitely Multisports, or Formula Forward, or even tin tops

FFirsts are a bit quirky, I didnt get them to go as fast as I should have
compared to the other vehicles. In the Escort I managed to get Instructor
going.. "I really enjoyed that, but a bit hard on my heart" (An ace FFirst pilot
at least 10 years younger than me). maybe I'm biased or feel more secure with
a bit of bodywork about me. Mind you the F.Forward I managed to throw around
quite well.


>What would you say the advantages/disadvatges of buying a car as an 
>unfinnished project v's a going concern.

Unfinished can mean a bottomless pit for money and time... my 23 has taken
a lot of both just trying to sort out small problems. �250 to get a throttle
that actually works. The fuel system will have cost about �150 to sort out.
The gear linkage will cost about �300 to finally sort. Oil cooling �150
Oil pressure gauge �50. etc.. etc..
I would buy a year old  Multisport if racing was your aim, for about �8k